


look around, look around

by lutzaussi



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, M/M, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-06
Updated: 2017-02-06
Packaged: 2018-09-22 09:10:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,280
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9599864
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lutzaussi/pseuds/lutzaussi
Summary: In which soulmates are known by the warmth you receive from them, and Kakashi's mantra is "Avoid, avoid, avoid." Until that tactic doesn't work anymore. Which, all told, is really okay with Kakashi.





	

Kakashi doesn’t remember heat, doesn’t remember what it feels like to feel warm. He’s been cold since he was five, give or take, years after his mother died, months before his father did. Of course, years after there’s a hint of warmth at the tips of his fingertips whenever he’s near Guy, but that’s it; that is as close as Hatake Kakashi gets to love.

-

They say that meeting your soulmate will set your entire being on fire, like being consumed from within by the most powerful of katon, like being the heart of a supernova. Family, and, to a lesser extent, friends, are softer, warmth born of time spent together, of bonds that are unbreakable.

And when it happens to Kakashi, he can do nothing but agree.

-

Kakashi is…

Well. Kakashi isn’t sure what to believe when he walks into the mission room and he feels, actually _feels_ his fingers, feels heat racing through his whole body. Mostly because there are three chuunin he has never seen before accepting reports and a fourth handing them out, and none of them react to a sudden onslaught of heat.

(Later, much, much later Kakashi realizes that’s because they’re trained ninjas. There’s no way in hell he reacted, either.)

First his mind decides that there must be an enemy jutsu on him, but he can immediately discount that because nobody in the entire world knows how to mess with a person’s sense of their soulmate. The second thing his mind decides is that whoever his soulmate is, they must not be his soulmate in return.

The third thing his mind decides is that he needs to leave.

-

There are stories of that, of people whose soulmates still do not feel warmth until they meet someone else. Kakashi’s never met anyone like that, but sometimes he hears rumors that the three Sannin were entangled in such a way, and occasionally that some of the best three-man teams are also similarly intertwined.

It doesn’t make him feel any better, any more than the occasional pulses of heat that shiver from his hands to his core when he’s flitting around the village. He goes to the mission room at different hours, weird hours, and there is never anyone there who makes him heat up. Everything else can be done at a distance anyway—the Hokage briefs him on most of his missions in the man’s office, he only ever goes to get groceries in the middle of the night, and Gai is rather amicable about getting drunk during the afternoon, when nobody else is at the bar.

-

Gai, who has known his soulmate since they were young (a lovely individual named Shinobu who works at a tea shop) doesn’t understand Kakashi’s apprehension about the whole thing. Admittedly, Kakashi has also not told him anything about meeting his soulmate in the middle of the Friday-morning mission room rush.

He can barely handle his own goddamn crises without Gai trying to understand what’s going on.

-

Kakashi works out that he can feel heat whenever he’s in the south-western area of Konoha, and he definitely is not soulmates with two of the chuunin who were at the return desk because he catches them occasionally at the mission room, but the other two he doesn’t manage to find again.

Well, he could definitely try, but he’s already pushed it by breaking into the Hokage’s office once this year, and he would rather keep from doing that again.

-

“Oh fuck,” says Kakashi’s mind rather eloquently when he is assigned a genin team and meets Umino Iruka to pick up the personnel files on his team in the same afternoon. Because Kakashi feels like living fire the moment he flickers into the teacher’s lounge where Iruka (the brunet who had been handing out missions) is sitting. Thankfully, alone, because Kakashi’s face is real fucking red, and he can even _feel_ it.

“Oh,” Iruka says, sounding slightly bemused, “It _is_ you.”

-

Their first three dates are immensely awkward, because while the heat may be a cosmic-destiny-soulmates thing, Kakashi is not good with people and Iruka is very obviously confused by everything that is happening. The ice really breaks during date four, when Kakashi is doing a very bad job of hiding the fact that he still hurts from a myriad of bruises and Iruka finally grabs him, flickers them both out of the restaurant they are sitting in (but not before leaving change on the table) and chucks him onto a bed.

 _Iruka’s_ bed, Kakashi instantly knows, because it smells like him, and he doesn’t have time to think after that because the other man straddles his back and begins massaging the sore muscles around his shoulders.

-

After date four, Kakashi is fairly sure that he is genuinely in love.

-

A full week into shepherding his genin team through the typical trials and tribulations, he finds himself warming to them in the emotional and literal senses. It’s not a surprise except for the fact that it is to him, and when Naruto conscripts Sakura and Sasuke start making bento for all of them to share at lunch it isn’t even _weird_.

Even Sasuke, quiet, dorky Sasuke, is warm when he’s near, and Kakashi counts that as more of a victory than anything else.

-

Iruka is soft and gentle but hard as fucking iron, and within three weeks Kakashi does not hesitate to say that he is absolutely weak for the other man. They continue to move very slow, because Kakashi can’t handle fast and they are still fumbling to learn about each other. But it doesn’t take long for the feeling of steady heat in his ribcage to be normal, doesn’t take long for him to miss being around Iruka during the day, and at night when they aren’t sleeping together.

They keep quiet about it even after Iruka moves into Kakashi’s apartment at two months, because nothing good comes of flouting, especially when you’re a career ninja who tends to piss off multiple countries with the wave of one hand. Not even the kids know, which is quite a feat because they habitually turn up at Kakashi’s apartment whining about training.

-

The next time he goes out with Gai it’s just the two of them and it has been months since they have seen each other, let alone gone drinking. Well, generally it’s Gai that does the drinking, because Kakashi has a high tolerance and doesn’t like testing his liver, but this time they share a warm bottle of sake.

Gai talks and talks and talks but Kakashi doesn’t mind, finds himself actually enjoying the warmth the presence of his friend brings and the similar warmth of the sake.

“You know, my dear, esteemed rival,” Gai says when Kakashi walks him home, not drunk enough to begin fighting people but right on the verge, “I’m not sure I believe that you haven’t met your soulmate?”

“Maa, why?” Kakashi asks, mostly because if he keeps him talking the other man is less likely to punch stuff at random.

“Because,” Gai rather gracefully flails until both of his hands are gesturing to Kakashi’s face, “you look happier than I think I have ever seen you.”

-

He gets back home and Iruka’s still awake, grading papers despite how tired he looks. Kakashi half-heartedly toes his sandals and his mask off, goes to drape himself over his soulmate.

“Mm?” Iruka looks up, and the corners of his eyes crinkle delightfully as he smiles, “what is it?”

And Kakashi smiles at the heat that curls in him, that makes him feel so at home, and says, “Just something Gai said. I think he might be right.”


End file.
